Mike Prager

The past 10 days of frigid arctic air are going to yield to a period of mainly snow, but also a risk of sleet and freezing rain in some locations of the Inland Northwest.

Spokane County commissioners are fine-tuning regulations for legal marijuana production to allow indoor growing operations in light industrial zones in unincorporated parts of the county. Commissioners last month approved an interim zoning ordinance allowing both growing and processing operations within the light industrial zones under county jurisdiction. Cities have to establish their own zoning rules.

Work on a new interchange at U.S. Highway 195 and Cheney-Spokane Road won’t be completed this year as originally anticipated. A contractor working on the $6.4 million construction project is slowing down on work and is expected to finish it next year.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind chill warning for tonight and early Saturday.

The National Weather Service has posted a wind chill watch for brutally cold temperatures aggravated by winds gusting to 20 mph in Spokane today and tonight.

Spokane County will give its sheriff’s budget another $283,000 to pay for unforeseen costs incurred in 2013. Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich on Tuesday told county commissioners his department continues to feel budget fallout from retirements, injuries, overtime and the cost of hiring new deputies.

Spokane County commissioners raised property taxes by 1 percent as they approved a 2014 budget that preserves the county’s existing level of services as well as its workforce. The $142 million general fund budget is a slight increase from the $140 million budget for 2013.

A chain-reaction fatal collision at the start of Thanksgiving travel last Wednesday was a strong reminder of the danger posed by fast-changing winter weather conditions in the Inland Northwest. One person died in the four-vehicle crash involving a semitruck, two passenger cars and a pickup on a stretch of freeway that had iced over.

An expansion to Spokane’s urban growth area was thrown out Tuesday, though that may not keep some development in the expanded area from moving forward. Spokane County commissioners decided last summer to expand the urban growth area.

The best way to get Centennial Trail users across busy Mission Avenue in northeast Spokane would be a new pedestrian bridge rather than a tunnel under Mission. The bridge emerged as the preferred alternative after more than a year of study on how to improve safety for trail users.

The state of Washington and the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency this morning issued stage-1 burning restrictions through at least 4 p.m. on Monday.

National Weather Service forecasters said today's sunny weather is also bringing one of the region's cold weather hazards - stagnant and polluted air.

The Spokane City Council approved plans by Mayor David Condon to create a new department of grants management and financial assistance. The council approved the department in a 6-1 vote Monday with Councilman Jon Snyder voting no.

The Spokane City Council rejected a new labor contract with the police union that failed to give an ombudsman the power to conduct independent investigations into police wrongdoing. The 7-0 Monday vote fulfills a council promise and brushes aside Mayor David Condon’s deal with the Spokane Police Guild. The council demanded a tougher pact that includes ombudsman powers that voters approved at the polls in February: Give an ombudsman powers to investigate rather than rely on the practice of having police officers investigate other police officers.

The Spokane City Council this afternoon made good on a promise to reject any proposed labor contract with the police department that lacks union acceptance of independent investigative authority for the city’s police ombudsman.

Spokane Transit Authority is celebrating Veterans Day today in the best way it knows how: rolling out a new version of the red, white and blue bus. “This was initiated by some of our employees who have been thinking about this for the past few years since the first Stars and Stripes bus, painted in memory of those lost during 9/11, was retired,” Elizabeth Boushey, STA spokeswoman, announced last week.